graphite

“We’re making a low cost graphene material. There is a need for large quantities of graphene but if it costs $500 a gram there will not be much demand. So you need high quality at low cost. The MesoGraf™ process reduces costs by orders of magnitude. Where the chemical or copper vapor deposition (CVD) process graphene might run $200 a gram, MesoGraf™ will be affordably priced to enable mass consumption by industry.”
To qualify for the Government of Canada funding Grafoid needed to be well along in the MesoGraf™ development process. “We’re well past proof of concept”, explained Economo, “We have a full scale production facility in Kingston Ontario.”

“There are big graphite properties out there but the market corrected. We’re looking for easy access, near surface deposits of high purity, large flake graphite and creating our own relationships with new customers.” explained Gill. “Smaller pods of graphite which are easy to extract will be easier to sell. At the La Loutre Graphite Property located near the Imerys Graphite and Carbon Mine in Quebec which we optioned in 2014, we’re looking for a minimum of 20 million tons of 5% large flake graphite with high carbon purity even if it's located in multiple pods. The large flake is what is required for batteries, the smaller, amorphous graphite can be used in graphene applications as well as other lines of business.”

“The Graphene 3D Labs spin out was very much a proof of concept for Lomiko and our partner Graphene Labs. We contributed our flake graphite and seed money for the development of a 3D printing technology using graphene. Graphene Labs and our joint venture partner Stony Brook University provided patent=pending techniques and facilities to the project.” said Gill.
“Our partnership with Graphene Labs is designed to throw off business opportunities and the 3D printing application was first out of the gate. Effectively this spin-off took our $350,000 investment and valued it at $4.5 million.” (At present market prices Lomiko’s shares are worth closer to $7.0 million.)“The Graphene 3D Labs spin out was very much a proof of concept for Lomiko and our partner Graphene Labs. We contributed our flake graphite and seed money for the development of a 3D printing technology using graphene. Graphene Labs and our joint venture partner Stony Brook University provided patent=pending techniques and facilities to the project.” said Gill.
“Our partnership with Graphene Labs is designed to throw off business opportunities and the 3D printing application was first out of the gate. Effectively this spin-off took our $350,000 investment and valued it at $4.5 million.” (At present market prices Lomiko’s shares are worth closer to $7.0 million.)

We spoke to Baxter a few days after the release of the Feasibility Study, “This is the highest level of analysis. It is the most accurate consolidation of the economics of the project. It’s bankable,” said Baxter.
“You really can’t talk about the economics of a project until you have the Feasibility Study,” explained Baxter.

Elcora CEO Troy Grant is happy to discuss the details of Elcora’s Sri Lankan operations. “The Ragedara mine is producing raw graphite right now. We have a stockpile of over 500 tons ready for processing.” said Grant.
“The graphite runs to 99.9% purity and the crystal structure ranges between what is called large and jumbo.”

“Northern’s deposit was formed by the metamorphosis of a different rock type than other deposits and therefore it is a different style of deposit.” said Bowes “It is lower grade but the graphite is almost all valuable large and extra large flakes that are easier to round and to purify at a relatively low cost.”
Commercially the combination of larger flakes and low processing costs is vital. Large flake graphite itself sells for about $1,300 a tonne, spherical flake graphite commands $3,500 uncoated and up to $10,000 per tonne coated. With increasing battery demand and decreasing Chinese supply there is some urgency for new production and Northern is one of the leading companies.

Alibaba Resources is counting on a big reward, 2 million dollars, and crowd sourcing to find the graphite needle in the data haystack.
“We are reaching out to geologists, prospectors, surveyors, researchers and resource companies.” said Bob Komarechka, CEO of Alibaba, “We’re counting on someone seeing our reward and remembering a drill log or an EM anomaly from a property they might have been looking at a decade ago before graphite was very interesting. Or maybe a summer student looking through old core will have seen our offer and when she sees a run of graphite will tell her supervisor.”

“This is one of a kind graphite; Very pure, very high quality.” said Eveleigh. “It’s ready for the green tech application testing and there should be great demand for it. The Company will target high quality-high value graphite powder market for the cleantech sector.”
Technology is driving market demand for high purity graphite (>99%) in emerging markets for energy & energy storage, electric vehicles and electronics (Li-batteries).
Like many mining CEO’s Eveleigh can be frustrated by the market. “A lot of investors don’t get it at all yet. There is a disconnect between the story and the stock price. We feel it is under-valued.”

“This is the first off take agreement ever in the graphite industry. Having an off take agreement makes financing easier. Graphite is an industrial mineral and to build a mine you need an off take.” Said Baxter. Unlike precious metals or base metals where there is a world wide commodity market, graphite tends to be sold directly to end users through brokers. However, the commitment to build a mine requires a degree of certainty which brokered deals simply cannot provide.”

“We were quite surprised to find the performance of the supercapacitor prototype was at a high level compared with similar supercapacitors described in scientific publications. We were working with raw graphite while the other scientists were using graphite subjected to vigorous purification procedures. We attribute our success to the exceptional properties of the the Quartre Milles graphite”.
Which is good news for Lomiko Metals CEO Paul Gill whose Quatre Milles graphite property has provided the samples to Graphene Labs.